ACNH - Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch)

How to Know a Tool's Durability

Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) - How to Know a Tool

Unlike in past games, Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH) introduced a new feature where, axes, shovels, fishing rods, nets, watering cans, and slingshots can break after a few uses.

Read on each tool's durability and when a specific tool will break.

List of All Tools Durability

Click to jump to a section!
ACNH - AxeAxes ACNH - ShovelShovels ACNH - Fishing RodFishing Rods
ACNH - NetNets ACNH - Watering CanWatering Cans ACNH - SlingshotSlingshots
Other Tools

Axe Durability

Item Durability
Currently UnavailableFlimsy Axe 40 Uses
Currently UnavailableStone Axe 100 Uses
Currently UnavailableAxe 100 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Axe 200 Uses

An Axe will lose durability when chopping wood and hitting rocks.

Though swinging an axe in air will not lose durability, you may want to lay off doing that to avoid looking like a serial killer.

How to Chop Wood

Shovel Durability

Item Durability
Flimsy Shovel ImageFlimsy Shovel 40 Uses
Shovel ImageShovel 100 Uses
Golden Shovel ImageGolden Shovel 200 Uses
Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Shovel 100 Uses
Currently UnavailableColorful Shovel 100 Uses
Currently UnavailablePrinted-Design Shovel 100 Uses

A Shovel will lose durability when digging up buried items and hitting rocks.

Using a shovels to plant flowers and starts or bury item will not affect durability.

How to Hit the Rocks

Fishing Rod Durability

Item Durability
Currently UnavailableFlimsy Fishing Rod 10 Uses
Currently UnavailableFishing Rod 30 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Fishing Rod 90 Uses
Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Fishing Rod 30 Uses
Currently UnavailableColorful Fishing Rod 30 Uses
Currently UnavailableFish Fishing Rod 30 Uses

A Fishing Rod will only lose durability after catching a fish.

Reeling in your line without a fish will not affect durability.

How to Catch Fish

Net Durability

Item Durability
Flimsy Net ImageFlimsy Net 10 Uses
Net ImageNet 30 Uses
Golden Net ImageGolden Net 90 Uses
Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Net 30 Uses
Currently UnavailableColorful Net 30 Uses
Currently UnavailableStar Net 30 Uses

A Net will only lose durability after catching a bug.

Using your net to hit objects and villager will not affect durability, but watch where you swing!

How to Catch Bugs

Watering Can Durability

Item Durability
Currently UnavailableFlimsy Watering Can 20 Uses
Currently UnavailableWatering Can 60 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Watering Can 180 Uses
Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Watering Can 60 Uses
Currently UnavailableColorful Watering Can 60 Uses
Currently UnavailableElephant Watering Can 60 Uses

A Watering Can will only lose durability after watering flowers and pumpkins.

Watering other objects, such as starts, trees, and the ground, will not affect durability

How to Plant Flowers

Slingshot Durability

Item Durability
Currently UnavailableSlingshot 20 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Slingshot 60 Uses
Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Slingshot 20 Uses
Currently UnavailableColorful Slingshot 20 Uses

A Slingshot will only lose durability when after popping a ballons.

Missing your shot at a balloon will not affect durability.

How to Get Presents from Balloons

Other Tools Durability

ACNH - Player using a Bug Wand

Other tools like the Ladder, Vaulting Pole, and various Wands are unbreakable and do not have durability.

Use these items as much as you like!

List of All Wands and How to Use Them

List of Golden Tools and Durability

Item Durability
Currently UnavailableGolden Axe 200 Uses
Golden Shovel ImageGolden Shovel 200 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Fishing Rod 90 Uses
Golden Net ImageGolden Net 90 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Watering Can 180 Uses
Currently UnavailableGolden Slingshot 60 Uses

Golden Tools offer the best durability in Animal Crossing: New Horizons (ACNH)! The only downside is that they can still break.

Though they'll last a lot longer than regular tools, you may want to consider saving your Gold Nuggets for other DIYs.

How to Get Gold Nuggets

How to Increase Tool Durability

Upgrade Flimsy Tool

ACNH - Crafting.png
Flimsy Tools may be the weakest tools, but you can upgrade them to their stronger variants at the DIY workbench! Once you've crafted your tool, you'll have a completely new tool with better durability!

Reset the Durability with Customization

ACNH - Customizing a slingshot
If you know that your tools only has a few uses left, you can customize your tools to reset its durabilty!

Head to a DIY workbench with some Customization Kits in hand and choose the color you want! Once customized, you'll get back the durability of a brand new tool.

Cannot Customize All Tools

However, not all tools can be customized. See all the tools you can customize on the list below.

Shovel ImageShovel Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Shovel Currently UnavailableColorful Shovel Currently UnavailablePrinted-Design Shovel
Fishing Rod Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Fishing Rod Currently UnavailableColorful Fishing Rod Currently UnavailableFish Fishing Rod
Net ImageNet Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Net Currently UnavailableColorful Net Currently UnavailableStar Net
Watering Can Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Watering Can Currently UnavailableColorful Watering Can Currently UnavailableElephant Watering Can
Slingshot Currently UnavailableOutdoorsy Slingshot Currently UnavailableColorful Slingshot

How to Customize Tools and Other Items

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Beginner

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Comment

1 Anonymousover 3 years

According to some Reddit users tools (fishing rod and net) don't break in their respective tournament, Mainly when the event timer is on. But will break if you catch a creature really close to the 3 min end mark (mainly when the time stops)

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